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impute and attribute that to man as a merit of his own, and will save him by his barely thinking so; as also, that one God could stipulate and enjoin such things to another God of one essence with himself; with any other extravagances of a similar kind. But open your eyes and unstop your ears, that is, think of the above notions from your understanding, and you will immediately see their utter disagreement with the truth.

Shut people's eyes, stop their ears and cause them not to think from any understanding, then might you not induce them to believe that God has given all his power to a man (the pope), that he might be as God upon earth? Might you not induce them to believe that dead men ought to be invoked? that people ought to uncover their heads and fall down upon their knees before their images? and that their carcasses, bones and sepulchres are sacred, and ought to be venerated? But if you open your eyes and unstop your ears, that is, if you think of these things from any understanding, will you not view them as enormities which human reason must abominate?

When these and similar things are received by a man whose understanding is shut up from a principle of religion, may not the temple in which he performs divine worship be then compared to a den or cavern under ground, where he does not know what the objects are which he sees? And may not his religion be compared to living in a house in which there are no windows? And his voice, when he worships, to inarticulate sound?